President Barack Obama was full of schoolyard insults during a speech on the minimum wage Wednesday, as he told the crowd that if the GOP’s policies were deli foods, they’d be a “stinkburger” or “meanwhich.”
The president addressed students at the University of Michigan and discussed proposals to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. As talk turned to Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget proposal and the GOP’s recent efforts to repeal Obamacare, Obama attempted to deliver a zinger to the GOP, comparing their policies to food served at a local deli.
“It’s like that movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ except it’s not funny,” he said. “If they tried to sell this sandwich at Zingerman’s, they’d have to call it the stinkburger or the meanwhich.”
President Obama visited Zingerman’s, an Ann Arbor-based deli, before his speech and discussed the minimum wage with several local workers.
The president’s speech before the crowd of more than 1,400 is the latest of several attempts to pressure Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour.
While Obama and his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill have made the wage hike a priority of their 2014 agenda, their colleagues on the other side of the aisle worry a minimum wage increase could hurt both businesses and workers.
And President Obama wasn’t soft on the GOP, as he went on to mock Republicans for dismissing his minimum wage proposal because they believe it’s beneficial only to young people.
“Next thing you know, they’ll say: ‘Get off my lawn,'” the president said. “…You’d think it would be a no-brainer. Here’s the problem: Republicans in Congress don’t want to vote to raise it at all. In face, some just want to scrap the minimum wage.”
You told them, Mr. President.
President Obama pushed young students in attendance to reach out to their elected officials and encourage them to vote to raise the minimum wage.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), though, has made it clear that he will not bring a bill to raise the minimum wage to the floor. Along with many other Republicans, Boehner argued raising the minimum wage would cause the price of goods and services to increase, slow hiring and cause businesses to lay workers off.
The Senate, to the contrary, is moving forward with a vote.
